First impressions are like living snapshots. Those first two or three seconds will play over and over permanently in the minds of everyone who meets you, like a scratched DVD.
It doesn't matter how successful or how down-andout a person may become, people are forever haunted by their former selves. There's always an outline, tracing the former self. An actor's first major film role is forever implanted in the brains of millions. This is why so many child actors can't go from have been pigtailed and playing with talking pets to seductive, gun blasting vixens. When children are first born, that image is will be imprinted in the minds of their parents, even if those children grow up to be old and fat.
Here's something you've probably heard before: the eyes don't lie. Cut a picture of someone so that just the eyes are showing and you will the see true self at that particular moment. Lips are fraudulent (anyone can smile while in distress and in turn, sometimes crying can be mistaken for laughing) and words that come from them mean very little.
However, with that said, pictures can lie. Pictures lie all the time. There has never been a picture that has ever told the truth, as Alex will find out eventually.
Alex was hiding in a locked bathroom, waiting for the arrival and hopefully, a very quick departure of his cousins. His mother, Elaine, promised a cookie to lure him out but with no success. The only thing left was the cotton swab.
Elaine stood on her toes and reached for it, at the top of the door frame. She pushed it into the knob, turned, and opened the door.
She found her son, in the bathtub, knees hugged to chest and wrapped within the shower curtain.
“What is the matter with you?” said Elaine in a way that wasn't asking a question but making a declaration, the only way that parents know how.
“I don't want to see my cousins, don't make me!” shivered Alex.
“They've been waiting forever to see you! Now stop this at once and come out!” she grabbed his hand and lifted him out of the tub.
The sound of plastic ripping and as well as a hysterical shouting match was heard from the living room, where Alex's cousins were eating chocolate chip cookies and sipping sour lemonade.
Elaine carried Alex into the room. “Hey, Alex,” she started, “Say hello to Joe and Kate.”
Alex slowly turned around to face them and was greeted by their bright, glowing red demon eyes. Alex promised himself not to stare but he couldn't not stare. Alex waited for a hole to be burned through his forehead, like Cyclops. Or until they turn him into a red-eyed demon. He wasn't entirely sure but he felt his forehead becoming warmer.
“So, kids, tell us about your trip to Jamaica,” Alex's mom offered more cookies.
Kate picked out a chocolate chip, sucked on it, as her brother excitedly went into great detail about swimming with dolphins.
“Sounds like you two had a blast. Your parents sent us some pictures. Wish we could go to Jamaica one day.”
The pictures were, in fact, on Elaine's fridge right at this moment. The dolphins and the cousins were clipped under some cartoon character shaped magnets. The same bright, glowing red, overexposed eyes smiled in every photograph.
Alex felt his mind seeping down into his arms and legs, like a swarm of bees buzzing around inside of him. He was too young to know that this was the start of a panic attack. He felt like his mind was floating away and he had to sit still and focus so that it wouldn't. He could feel his heart pounding against his chest, pushing his rib cage against his skin.
“Alex, are you okay? You look sick. Let me feel your forehead, honey,” Elaine brushed a curl away from his face. “Honey, you're burning up! Go lay down in your room, I'll be there in a minute with a thermometer.”
The swarm of bees inside of him suddenly flew away. A smile crept around the corners of his mouth while he was walking back to his room.
Just before shutting his bedroom door, his mom called out, “And don't rub your eyes! Looks like you have might pink eye.” she went back into the living room to talk to the cousins.
Name: Alex Kendall Location: St. Cloud
Think: Photographs only tell the truth.
Thing: Cousins with big red, glowing, out of focus eyes.
Status: fixed pending as is
Comments: It appears that only Alex is able to see the glowing eyes, which is a bit of a relief since they are in route to Florida via airplane. Perhaps with time and age, the redness will fade out.